67 COMBAT SUPPORT GROUP TRIP REPORT

File: 110796_aacad_03.txt
Page: 03
Total Pages: 14


           Lesson's  Learned:

           - Take Medical Records - the first day we had an individual
           throwing up blood and no medical history of the individual for
           the medics to look at, I still find it hard to believe Bergstrom
           not only overlooked this but would not send them to us after
           several requests this could have been life threatening in
           several incidents, 95% of the other units at our location had
           their medical records along.

          - Prime RIBS team kit is grossly inadequate - Luckily we were
          smart enough to take admin supplies for several months, aprons,
          gloves,  pillows,  blankets, detergent. cooking utensils,
          thermometers, and LAND MOBILE RADIOS. We only took 2 and needed
          at least 4 to coordinate events between tent building to search
          and recovery. Services was very low on the priority list for LMRs
          but they were sorely needed and the two I took were used
          constantly. Deploying to the field without a lap top or PC was
          almost a handicap itself. It was virtually impossible with our
          manning and population increases to keep an accurate manual
          locator system going as well as admin work such as policy
          letters, LORs, and files.  We begged Comm to give us one and they
          did, but the delay was aggravating and costly to time and
          efficiency.   Also I took  a squadron  Search and Recovery bag  and
          used every item in the bag on two accidents. There were no
          mortuary supplies or morgue kit at our site initially, recommend
          at least one Search and Recovery bag  be added to the kit.

          - Take Extra Cutlery- Arriving at the site with two MKTs,, and
          serving a 850 population, kitchen tools wore fast and
          disappeared. A complete knives set, serving spoons, tongs,
          thermometers,  scrubbing pads, rags, and can openers need to be in
          each kit at a minimum. Sanitation was pitiful and pot and pan
          area was outside in the open.

          - Services personnel arrived at scene too late - We had major
          problems with our late arrival at this bare base site. We arrived
          to a population of approximately 500 personnel already in bunk
          spaces with no hot food,  having been there up to 7 days already.
          The temporary Lt Col expected miracles (he was most senior
          member). The largest group there was the 728th TCS squadron from
          Hurlburt, the most impossible group of people I ve ever dealt
          with. They had approx 5 623x0, they owned and controlled and this
          created major conflicts about who supervised them and who they
          belonged to, since their commander was the highest ranking, he
          won the battles and we had to cater to his people.   Anyway, as
          groups came in and unpacked and covered cots next to them to make
          it look like the space was occupied,  it was virtually impossible
          to establish a base population count or determine which spaces
          were not occupied and at our site, as the population increased
          and tents didn't arrive on time we had people sleeping on the
         ground, in work tents,  morgue ect... the task was impossible to
          go in after the occupants and count...it took weeks to straighten
          things out and finally receive an 0-6 at the site to support us.
          Services MUST be the first group in, in the future. CES was not
          present either, so once Red Horse left after tent erection, there
         was very littlesupport . They arrived 3 days after us and that
         was a significant amount of time at the location. A hot meal was
         also expected immediately , luckily there were several pallets of
          B-rations on the ground...something positive.